Learn About Geary County Heritage in These Intriguing and Amusing Articles From our Museum Staff

Friday, May 30, 2014

Schoolhouses and Space Travel

Pleasant
View School joined Geary County from Riley County March 6, 1873 along with
other property. Like many other school districts in Geary County, the boundary
lines for the schools changed as populations expanded and new schools were
built.

Pleasant
View shows boundary changes in 1889, 1892, and 1906. Regardless, Pleasant View
served the families living around the Milford and Alida communities until it
closed in 1965 with the unification of Geary County schools into USD 475.

Geary
County’s remaining rural schoolhouses closed for regular classes just weeks
before the first US space-walk aboard the Gemini mission, June 3, 1965.
Pleasant View School, located near Milford Lake, was one of the last schools to
close, April 28, 1965.

Over the years before
it closed, Pleasant View had 59 different school teachers and hundreds of
children. This schoolhouse, which still stands between Old Milford Road and Highway
57, was sometimes referred to as the Dixon School or Half-Way school since it
was halfway between Junction City and Milford.

Mary
E. Pierce had a certificate to teach in both Riley and Davis, later Geary, Counties and she
spoke of walking to Dixon School to teach from Junction City, and she taught at
Pleasant View. Sources say that the school was referred to as Dixon school when
it was part of Riley County and later became Pleasant View.

The
school actually changed locations several times in its early years. According
to A History of Milford, Kansas, “two
schools were in operation in Milford Township.” One of the schools was south of
rush creek, about 400 yards west of the road from the Fasse-Adams farm.

This
school was moved in two sections in 1889 to a new location about ¼ mile north
of the current Pleasant View location. In 1908 an acre of land was donated by
the Neubers to build a new school and the school’s location was changed for the
final time.

The
present school building was built in 1909. When the school was built it lacked
any indoor plumbing, even a dry sink. In 1956 Pleasant View was remodeled and
redecorated which included running water and toilet facilities, and in 1957 new
student desks were added.

Since
it did not close until 1965 there are a number of local people who attended
their grade school years at Pleasant View School and have fond memories of it.

Betty
Cott Latimer remembered that one day sometime between 1943 and 1945 the
students were outside playing ball when the teacher came running out and
gathered the children.She told them all
that some soldiers had stopped to use the water pump and that one was a movie
star. “There pumping water was a tall, handsome Ronald Reagan. Little did we
know that for most of us it would be the closest we would ever get to a US President”
(“Taste of Geary County” Bus Tour).

Bertha
Ehm Gustafson was one of the Pleasant View teachers and she remembered, “I was
teacher, counselor, coach, and janitor. Wood, coal, and cobs had to be carried
in after school, the fire banked, cleaning and dusting done, all in readiness
for the next day. All this for a salary of $5.00 per day, which wasn’t bad.”(Project Heritage, 172.)

What
does all this have to do with space travel? Well, while there weren’t any
famous astronauts that attended Pleasant View School there is an interesting
juxtaposition here.Imagine what most of
us think of when we hear “one-room schoolhouse” and then think that Geary
County school children were still attending class in single rooms, some without
running water or flushing toilets, when satellites were first sent into
space.When Pleasant View and the other
remaining rural schools ended classes in 1965 it was only a month before the
Gemini space mission had Ed Whitedo a spacewalk on June 3, 1965.

Do
you have a one-room schoolhouse story or memory you’d like to share? The Geary
County Historical Society is in the midst of creating a driving tour of our
rural schools. We are looking for stories of your own or your family’s
experiences to include in the tour. If you have an amusing, interesting, or
important story you would like to share with us please call or come by the
museum. You can also write it down and send it to us at 530 N. Adams, Junction
City, KS 66441 or GearyHistory@gmail.com.

Left: The first photograph of the
EVA as Ed White backs away from the Gemini spacecraft over the Pacific Ocean
northeast of Hawaii. (NASA photo ID S65-30431)

Geary County Museums

The Museum is open Tuesday-Sunday 1-4 and is closed for holidays.There are three floors of exhibits, both permanent and rotating. We have a wonderful gift shop where you can buy trinkets for yourself or others. The Museum building is available for rent, email for more information. We have three Satellite sites available upon request.